Author | Wang Xinyue
Since the opening of the 2022 Almere World Horticultural Exposition in the Netherlands, the "Chinese Bamboo Garden" has been favored for its unique style of integrating traditional Chinese culture and modern craftsmanship. The park uses China's new bamboo engineering materials and processes, with bamboo plants as the main framework, the flowers and bamboo are organically integrated, presenting a three-dimensional picture of "flowers and bamboo symbiosis, beauty and coexistence". Peaceful, Beautiful, and Amazing are the most frequently heard words in the bamboo garden.
▲The Book of China
▲Chinese bamboo garden is favored by tourists
Bamboo as the core featuring traditional Chinese flowers
"China Bamboo Garden" covers an area of 4,200 square meters, which is the largest area among the 33 national exhibition gardens of this World Horticultural Exhibition. Focusing on the theme of "Developing a Green City", the park inherits the spatial layout and gardening art of classical gardens in Jiangnan, integrates the long-standing Chinese flower culture and bamboo culture with modern design language, and displays the latest achievements in the development of China's modern flower horticulture and bamboo industry.
▲Bamboo Garden Entrance
▲Bamboo Bridge Moon Shadow
▲Silk bamboo Yayin
▲Nine Continents and Hundred Flowers
▲The bamboo courtyard on the creek
▲Wu Zhu secluded
Speaking of the landscape characteristics of "Chinese Bamboo Garden", Zhou Anyi, the main creative designer of Bamboo Garden and the design director of the master studio of Suzhou Garden Design Institute Co., Ltd., said that the bamboo garden takes bamboo as the core, and on the basis of completely retaining the existing trees, the selection and layout of plant species closely follow the adaptability, ornamentality, regionality and culture, with bamboo and traditional Chinese flowers as the feature, shaping the landscape space of garden plants and creating a traditional Chinese plant culture. At the same time, it also presents the plant resource species and cultivation techniques of China, as one of the countries with the richest plant diversity in the world. The park has planted more than 120 kinds of flowers and plants with Chinese characteristics, such as peony, lotus, osmanthus flower, chrysanthemum and wood hibiscus, among which the "Jiuzhou Hundred Flowers" area adopts plant species of homologous medicinal food originating in China, presenting the healing function of plant color, sound, texture, aroma, dynamic and artistic conception, and displaying the Chinese wisdom of plants as traditional food and medicinal materials.
"We try to integrate new materials and new processes, with prefabricated bamboo construction and bamboo architecture, highlighting the spirit of green city construction, while combining the beauty of Chinese flowers to show the role of flowers in health and healing, passing on the beauty of Chinese culture, carrying forward the great power of 'beauty of beauty, beauty and commonality', and showing the achievements of the construction of ecological civilization on the mainland." Zhou Anyi said.
All the bamboo materials to create the "China Bamboo Garden" are produced in Anhui, and after pre-treatment, they arrive in the Netherlands after about 50 days of maritime shipping, and then the precision craftsmen of Suzhou Agricultural Vocational and Technical College process and splice the bamboo raw materials, and finally show the whole picture of the "Chinese Bamboo Garden".
Ju Pengjie, the person in charge of the on-site construction of "China Bamboo Garden" and deputy dean of the College of Landscape Engineering of Suzhou Agricultural Vocational and Technical College, said that there are 5 containers of transportation materials, of which 2 containers are bamboo raw materials and 1 container is a finished bamboo sofa. Counting the types and quantities of bamboo raw materials, Ju Pengjie said: "The materials include 3,000 moso bamboo, 1,000 red bamboo, 300 light bamboo, 5,000 moso bamboo chips and 4,600 white bamboo pieces. In overseas construction, on-site transfer is simply impossible, and all special construction materials must be prepared in excess of one-third of the actual demand. ”
Overcome the difficulties of the epidemic and let the bamboo garden bloom wonderfully
In May 2020, the China Flower Association launched a nationwide call for proposals. In September 2020, Suzhou Agricultural Vocational and Technical College and Suzhou Landscape Design Institute Co., Ltd. stood out from 10 design units and consortiums and won the 2022 Netherlands Expo China Outdoor Exhibition Garden Design Scheme Excellence Award. Since then, the design team has carried out design optimization and deepening work many times, and Suzhou Agricultural Vocational and Technical College has also been preparing for the construction work. Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, many unpredictable changes and difficulties have taken place in the preparation and construction process, which can be described as twists and turns, full of challenges.
In the design stage, the design team broke through the previous traditional garden style and boldly adopted the modern garden design style to interpret the Jiangnan garden culture. "We are under pressure to face such an important national-level project, and at one point there was a debate within us over disagreement. We must go through repeated deliberation, modeling, and consulting the professional team of bamboo construction to be full of confidence in the safe construction of the design plan. Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, we had no way to see the scene, and the transportation of materials was full of uncertainties. We had to present our design intent on a very limited budget. Zhou Anyi introduced.
In the face of various difficulties that are difficult to predict during the epidemic, the construction team of Suzhou Agricultural Vocational and Technical College insisted on stationing at the site, and under the condition of extremely tight construction period, the ideal construction effect was presented as scheduled. It should be known that the "neighbor" German team of the bamboo garden construction team has been stationed on the site since September last year, and they only arrived in the Netherlands in February this year, and the difficulties can be imagined.
▲China participated in the 2022 Almere World Horticultural Exhibition in the Netherlands, the first batch of construction teams took a group photo before the trip
▲The construction team overcame many difficulties
Ju Pengjie led the first batch of construction teams to arrive in Amsterdam, the Netherlands at noon on February 20, Beijing time, and on the 21st, they handed over the "China Bamboo Garden" plot with the Dutch side and began construction. Ju Pengjie recalled that the review and handling of visas under the epidemic situation was extremely strict, and they originally planned to leave on January 6, but due to visa reasons, they were postponed to February 20, resulting in an extremely tight construction period. During the construction of the bamboo garden, it was found that the weather in the Almere area from February to March was very bad, with frequent strong winds, heavy rain, hail, etc., and there was a heavy snow in early April, and the construction conditions were extremely bad. In order to rush the construction schedule, the construction team set off every day before dawn, drove for half an hour, and arrived at the site at about 6 o'clock. "It's only minus three or four degrees in the morning, and the mask is all soaked in half an hour at most." Working 12 hours a day, at the end of the day, from the outside down jacket to the underwear inside, I couldn't tell whether it was sweat or rain, and the level 6 wind blew up the whole person was ignorant. In order to rush the deadline, all the teachers and workers worked together, digging pits, planting seedlings, laying supports, returning to the soil, watering, and every day the gloves could be worn out three or four pairs. Ju Pengjie recalled.
In addition to the tight construction period and poor construction conditions, Ju Pengjie's team also faced many unexpected difficulties. There are many spring holidays in the Netherlands, which bring many difficulties to the advancement of work. At the same time, the number of new crown infections in the Netherlands once reached more than 30,000 cases in a single day, and the epidemic prevention situation was particularly severe. There is also the transportation of materials, and in order to save costs, the local logistics company divides a container of goods into 5 batches and takes 4 days to transport them to the site. In order to rush the construction schedule, the team members repeatedly negotiated with the logistics company, and asked the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands and the Organizing Committee of the Almere World Horticultural Exposition in the Netherlands to urge the logistics company to send all the goods in the containers to the site as soon as possible. In terms of plant materials, due to the selection of many plants that embody Chinese characteristics, some varieties are difficult to find in the local area. On the one hand, the team tried to contact as many local nursery sites and plant suppliers as possible, and on the other hand, it made appropriate adjustments to the scheme to ensure that the design effect and construction schedule were correct. With the joint efforts of all staff, the "China Bamboo Garden" bloomed brilliantly at the World Horticultural Exhibition as scheduled.
In order to ensure the ornamental effect of the "Chinese Bamboo Garden" throughout the exhibition period, the construction team will have two experienced technicians stationed in the Netherlands, responsible for the daily maintenance and replacement of plants, so that every morning and evening watering, pruning dead branches and leaves, every month according to the actual situation of the site, the lower grass and flowers will be replaced once a month.
At the same time as the opening of the park, the "China Bamboo Garden" held the "China Beautiful Countryside Photography Exhibition", which presented the unique natural landforms, settlement forms, humanistic history and national customs of China's beautiful countryside, and highlighted the outstanding style of the construction of ecological civilization in China's beautiful countryside. During the exhibition period, the National Pavilion Day of China, theme days of some provinces and cities, as well as activities such as the exhibition of bamboo crafts with Chinese characteristics, the exhibition of Chinese intangible cultural heritage, and the exhibition of Chinese calligraphy and painting will also be held to spread traditional Chinese culture.